Dr Chakwas: Eywa's Grace
by WS6-TA
Summary: Commander Shepard heads to Pandora to help Dr. Augustine out of a sticky situation. Little does he know what he's about to discover. Takes place during Mass Effect 2 after all team members, excluding Legion, have been acquired plus a few loyalty missions. The Avatar side takes place right after Jake and Neytiri mate. Enjoy and please leave feedback. Rating may change.
1. Chapter 1

"Dr. Chakwas would like to speak with you, Commander," the upbeat redhead known as Kelly Chambers announced as Commander John Shepard stepped through the door from the tech labs. Said commander sighed to himself in very slight annoyance, he really wanted to get back to stopping the collectors and focusing on stopping the reapers but everyone of his squadmates seemed to have some problem that needed solving. Being the good CO that he is, or at least thinks he is, he's assisted everyone to help them focus on the task at hand. Shepard was still tired from Tali's trial from two days ago, not from the physical output of fighting Geth, no he loved that, it was from the mental output of the actual trial and arguing with the admirals. But he got it done, Tali is still considered part of the fleet and, hopefully, when the reapers showed up he could count on the Quarian fleet for reinforcements. He planned on heading back to the Citadel to help Thane reconnect with his son and help Garrus find Sidonis.

"Thanks, Kelly," the commander replied turning towards the elevator and hitting the button for floor 3. As the rage inducing slow elevator descended, he really wondered what the doctor, or "Mother of Normandy" as Joker so liked to call her, wanted. Whatever it was, Shepard would help no matter what it was. Dr. Chakwas had been with his team since he was hunting Saren down, and even though she never had to raise a weapon, she was invaluable when treating wounds.

Heading through the mess hall he noticed Miranda staring at him from one of the tables. The commander fought to suppress a smirk as he noticed the Normandy's XO taking a big interest in him over the past few weeks. Too bad for her that his heart belonged to Tali, and he knew the Quarian wouldn't take kindly with miss Lawson hitting on her man. The doors to the med bay hissed open to reveal the doctor pacing the width of whole room.

"Chambers said you wanted to see me?" Shepard asked.

"Thank you for speaking to on such short notice, John," Chakwas started, bringing a smile to the commander's face because he only allowed three people from the Normandy to call him John: Tali, Chakwas, and Garrus. The doctor put and hand to her face in a thinking pose "By chance have you ever heard of the moon _Pandora_?"

"Can't say I have," replied Shepard while racking his brain. It sounded familiar to him but with the ever expanding galaxy it was impossible to keep up with every new discovery.

"Hmm, I guess I would be surprised if you had. The Alliance discovered it over ten years ago, but due to its unique biology, it's discovery was kept from the general public. Before you ask me about Pandora's biology let me tell you that I know nearly nothing about it," Chakwas looked apologetic

"Okay, what does this have to do with me?"

"I'll get to that in a second. A friend of mine got chosen to lead the science team conducting their studies. She wanted me to come with her but I didn't want to be a part of the experiments they were going to be conducting,"

"What were they doing?" the commander asked.

"Dabbling in genetic modification, which is illegal in council space by the way. I also didn't want anything to do with the company funding their experiments,"

"Who were..." Shepard rolled his wrist to indicate her to continue.

"Resources Development Administration, or RDA for short,"

"Sounds familiar," once again Shepard thought back to where he might have heard the name in passing.

"I don't know exactly what they do, alternate fuel sources research I think. They are a small time company but they are as crooked as Cerberus," that got Shepard's attention.

"Alternate fuel sources?"

"Yes, or at least that's their cover," Chakwas continued, "What I wanted to talk about though, I got a message from my friend. She said that soon she might be in a lot of trouble, it was mostly an apology letter, she said she wished we hadn't gone our separate ways. I haven't seen her in fifteen years and haven't spoken in five,"

"Why is she in trouble?"

"I don't know, she said she's going to be doing what's right and that the RDA will heavily disagree," Chakwas began pacing again, worry clearly etched into her body language.

"What's your friends name?" Shepard asked deciding to get this out of the way quickly.

"Dr. Grace Augustine," she replied with a hint of pride in her voice.

"I guess we can sort this out, send the coordinates to EDI,"

"Thanks commander," the doctor turned and sat back at her desk.

"Hell's Gate tower, this is the Normandy requesting permission to dock" Joker, the Normandy's pilot and resident commedian, said into the comm in an uncharacteristic professional voice.

"Normandy, this is Hell's Gate, we do not have a scheduled visit, land in docking bay 15. If your intentions can't be confirmed your ship will be impounded," came the reply.

"Wow, so this is what Noveria looks like with a forest" Joker turned to say to Shepard who just smirked and turned to head to the conference room.

"I really believe I should accompany you to this meeting," Miranda insisted for the hundredth time.

"No, we don't know what sort of dirty dealing this 'RDA' is up to but the last thing I need is for Cerberus to be involved," Shepard explained, rubbing his temples in annoyance. The whole squad was gathered to receive their assignment. "Garrus, armor up,"

"And why, may I ask, is HE going along with you?" Miranda, rudely, interrupted.

"Because he's former C-Sec," Shepard monotoned "and Zaeed lock and load. Before you ask, all the soldiers here are mercs, and who here has better experience with mercs than Mr. Massani,"

"Ready to crack skulls when you are, Commander," Zaeed sneered.

"Mordin, I don't know how familiar you are with genetics, but I want you to head over to the science labs,"

"Dabbled in genetics. Will see what I can do," Mordin nodded and left to get prepared.

As Shapard and his three squad members exited the airlock they were "greeted" by three of the RDA soldiers wearing clear-faced breather masks. The first one to speak up had is head completely shaved.

"Corporal Lyle Wainfleet," he started, sizing the group up "Private Atz and Private Gibson," he indicated the other two escorts.

"Commander Shepard," John replied extending his hand which Wainfleet ignored.

"The Colonel wants to see you immediately, follow us," the corporal turned and lead the way not bothering to make sure the three were following.

"This is a beautiful world, what's the RDA's interest in it?" Garrus asked as they walked.

Gibson turned to face him "Wouldn't you like to know, _Turian_,"

"Unlike the scientist fags here, RDA has no interest in Pandora other than the massive amounts of unobtanium," Lyle answered, not bother to discipline the soldier who spoke out of place.

"Unique biology. Unwise to ignore it," Mordin piped up.

"Quite, lizard-man," Atz lashed out.

"Amphibian actually. Common mistake among uneducated,"

"What's so great about this unobtanium?" Shepard asked looking around at what really was a magnificent planet if you ignored the obvious man-made items here and there.

"It gets me paid, that's all I care about it," Lyle replied with apparent annoyance in his voice.

"Blindly following orders just for a paycheck, easy way to get yourself killed," Zaeed commented.

"No one asked your opinion, scar face," the rude soldier piped up again.

"Listening to Mr. Massani here is in your best interest, kid," Shepard stepped in with a smirk.

Shepard and his crew plus escort entered a command room of sorts just as what looked like a fight broke out. A slim, aging, redhead woman was pleading to an equally slim but slightly younger man.

"Parker, listen, there may still be time to-"

"Shut your pie hole!" a large muscular older man with three scars running down the right side of his head shouted, disdain for the redhead evident in his voice and face. From his seated position he glared at the woman, his face red from pent up anger.

"Or what, Ranger Rick, you gonna shoot me?" the redhead matched his stare and resisted the urge to slap his smug face.

"I could do that," the big man replied with a smirk.

"You need to muzzle your dog," the woman said pointedly to the Parker.

"Can we take this down a couple of notches, please," the slim man demanded looking frustrated.

"You say you want to keep your people alive. Start by listening to her," a man in a wheelchair spoke up.

The big guy finally noticed the six people standing and staring "These the guys from the Normandy, Lyle?"

"Yes, Colonel. This is Commander Shep-"

"I know who he is," the colonel interrupted standing and sizing up the commander "What's your business her Shepard?"

"I'm here on a request from a friend of mine. What's the problem here?" Shepard asked indicating the other three that were arguing.

"None of your business. You think I'm about to tell a Cerberus monkey anything about what we do here, you've got another thing coming," the Colonel snorted and eyed up the rest of his squad, his eyes resting momentarily on Zaeed.

"I understand your concern but trust me it's not a voluntary alliance," Shepard was beginning to feel like a broken record.

"Bullshit, don't lie to me. I might just lock you up on principle," the Colonel continued with disgust, leering in amusement at the thought.

"Good luck keeping a council Spectre locked up," Shepard replied matching the colonel's stare "Now, while I'm still asking nicely, what's the problem here?"

"These two he-"

"You ain't gonna get anything but bullshit outta this guy, Shepard. Be better to ask one of them," Zaeed interrupted, clearly not intimidated by the colonel, and indicating the redhead woman and the guy in the wheelchair.

"Good call, Zaeed," Shepard started before the bully of a colonel could speak up. Even though at this point Shepard didn't think the colonel was capable of speech due to the amount of fury boiling under his skin as he stared at the veteran mercenary "You, what's your name?" he asked the redhead first.

The woman looked the commander up and down with disdain "Dr. Grace Augustine,"

"Dr. Chakwas' friend," Garrus concluded

Grace dropped the negative demeanor and turned to the Turian "You know Karin?"

Garrus gave the doctor the turian equivalent of a grin "Yes, Dr. Chakwas is one of our good friends,"

"Chakwas told me you sent her a message saying you were going to be in trouble, she's worried about you," Shepard stepped forward and offered his hand, which Grace shook and he could feel how tense she was. Whatever was going on clearly had her worked up.

"Another charge to add to your list, Augustine. Messages must be cleared by RDA before sent of world," the Colonel interrupted.

"That message would have never passed clearance, Quaritch, and you know it," Grace fired back.

"What kind of company are you running here, Quaritch?" Shepard inquired with a hard stare "A mining company or a prison?"

"I don't run this company, I just enforce the rules set to keep the staff safe. And it's 'Colonel Quaritch' to you, Shepard"

"And it's 'Commander' to you," Shepard shot back.

"You aren't part of the Alliance anymore, your rank doesn't mean shit to me," Quaritch replied with a smirk. He particularily enjoyed the brief look of malice that crossed Shepard's face.

"And you aren't military, either. You're just a bully who forces his victims to call him king," Garrus spoke up with nearly spitting with disgust.

"Don't lecture me on bullying, _Turian_," Quaritch shot back getting in Garrus' face. Garrus, to his credit, didn't back down and clenched his fist ready to go. To the non-combatants in the room the intensity in the air was almost unbearable.

"Okay, that's enough, all if you! I run this show here, I make the rules here, and like it or not Commander, Grace broke a major one," Selfridge stepped in between Garrus and Quaritch "So unfortunately, I will have to detain her and Jake Sully here for the time being,"

"Unfortunately?" Grace snorted in slight disbelief.

"I don't hate you, Grace, but you are starting to cost me more money than you or your projects are worth," Parker replied with a shrug.

"What's his offense?" Shepard asked indicating the wheelchair bound male who hadn't said a word since Shepard and his crew started making a scene.

"Destruction of company property and fraternizing with the Na'vi. Ironically the latter is a worse offense than the former," Parker eyed Sully with a hint of disdain.

"Na'vi? What's that?" Garrus asked.

"Follow me to the bio-lab, and I'll explain," Augustine said walking out.

"I haven't dismissed you yet, doctor," Quaritch growled out getting up to intercept her, but was stopped by Shepard.

"I'm dismissing her. Zaeed, I'm giving you Spectre's clearance to stay here and make sure these guys don't pull anything stupid until we get to the bottom of this. I trust you won't let the big cheese here out of your sight?"

"You bet, Shepard" the veteran replied with a wicked grin.

"Garrus, you have clearance as well, I need you to go through all the video logs of from those two and see what you can gather. Mordin follow Dr. Augustine, I want to talk to Jake first,"

"I'll get it done, Commander," Garrus strolled to a terminal and got to work starting with log number one from Grace "this is going to be a long night,"

Zaeed leaned up against a nearby support pillar and kept his gaze on Quaritch while Mordin followed the head scientist already firing off questions faster than the poor woman could answer.

"Come with me, Jake, I want to talk to you in private," Shepard indicated back towards the Normandy. Sully just nodded and followed the commander trying to wrap his around what just transpired in the comm tower and what he had gotten himself into.

**Alright just a little bit of a disclaimer. If I have gotten anything wrong about what the RDA does etc. I apologize but I don't know THAT much about Avatar. I also apologize if anyone seems OOC. This will have irregular updates, I don't know when the next chapter will be released, hopefully before Saturday. For Shepard identifiers Mshep(obviously)/Soldier/Earthborn/War Hero.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Welcome to the Normandy, Jake Sully," a robotic, yet feminine, voice greeted the paraplegic as soon as the airlock finished its cycle. He didn't know what to expect from this Commander Shepard, sure he'd heard the stories about his bravery two years ago when the Citadel was attacked, but he never put much thought into what the first human Spectre would be like in person. Least of all what it would be like to be interrogated, of all things, by the famous soldier. Still the Commander was silent, as he was the whole time spent in the decontamination process, as he led the way down the narrow walkway towards a massive holographic projection of the ship. As they passed the CIC a cute redhead flashed him a "secretary" smile, which he returned with half the enthusiasm. The pair walked through a set of doors into what looked like a lab then took an immediate right through another door, and another left through yet another door to the obvious conference room. The Commander stood to the side and let Jake roll in first.

"Before we begin, anything I can get you?" Shepard asked with such a professionalism that for a second Sully forgot he was about to be interrogated.

"What do you have in the way of booze?" Jake smirked, it had been too long since he felt the satisfying burn of alcohol. The scientist heavily looked down upon getting the avatars drunk and while not linked up he spent his free time catching up on sleep. Not that he was a high enough up the corporate ladder to be rewarded with alcohol anyway.

"Just about everything, actually. What do you fancy?" The commander smirked back, shocking Sully into a momentary silence. What kind of military ship would be allowed to stock alcohol? Especially a top of the line model like the Normandy.

"Uh... Jack on the rocks?" the paraplegic tossed out.

Shepard leaned his head back and spoke out loud to the ceiling "Kelly, could you bring us a glass of Jack, and Captain Coke? Easy on the Coke?"

"Coming right up, Commander," a female, human this time, voice replied over the intercom. The silence that followed would have broken a lesser man, but Sully was made of sterner stuff. Instead he took the time to ponder the answered to the inevitable questions that were to come. Nearly 4 minutes passed before the redhead he saw earlier strode in with both glasses of booze in each of her hands. After serving the two men their respective drinks she took her leave, letting the soldiers to sit and momentarily enjoy their drinks in silence.

Jake was halfway done with his drink when he decided to speak up "At first I thought this might be an Alliance vessel, but the color schemes don't match up and no one I've seen so far acts like a soldier, other than you,"

Shepard raised his eyebrows at Sully's perception "You're right, this isn't an Alliance ship. It's predecessor was, but that's a different story. This ship was built by an organization known as Cerberus," Jake's brow furrowed in thought and Shepard sighed _Here we go again_, "Cerberus is a terrorist organization responsible for the majority of the galaxies' problems. The only reason I allow myself to be even remotely affiliated with them is because they are helping me with something VERY important," Sully nodded accepting his quick explanation.

Shepard finished his drink and decided that he'd given the paraplegic enough time to get comfortable "Now, about the charges RDA has filed on you. Let's start with 'fraternizing with the Na'vi' since apparently that's a worse offense than destruction of company property,"

"The Na'vi are the natives here on Pandora. Think of a human mixed with a cat, but twice our height and all blue. Ever since finding out the had intelligent though the scientists here have been trying to communicate with them. Our scientists used the DNA of the natives, mixed it with ours and made a living being dubbed 'Avatars',"

"How'd they manage that?" the Commander looked plainly confused "and what was the point?"

"Hey, I'm a soldier not a scientist, and the point is pretty clear. The Na'vi can interact with nature in ways that humans nor any other species can. They can link up to animals, some of the trees, and even each other and gather memories and emotions, who wouldn't want to experience that?" as he spoke Sully could hear his voice getting more and more heated. His voice was filled with wonderment. He explained the how the Na'vi were able to do this and when he finally got to Neytiri his heart sank, "Right now I'd bet every credit I'm making off this project, that she's sitting with my body, waiting for me to wake up,"

"You don't think she's run off with another male," Shepard suggested, he was starting to believe that this was Sully's first sexual counter with a woman since being paralyzed and that he was being blinded by the ability to make love again.

Jake met Shepard's eyes and the commander could see an inferno raging in them "No, this isn't some Asari whore. When the Na'vi mate, it's for life. She will never take another. You can't understand because you haven't been through it but think of someone you love." wasn't that hard for Shepard _Tali_ "Now imagine you can share every memory, every feeling, and eternal ecstasy with the a simple connection. It's more than love, if that's possible, if she died I.. I don't think I could live without her,"

"Sounds a lot like the Asari actually, in the mating sense," Shepard knew from experience before joining the Alliance, all the Asari whores that hung around the Reds. One in particular than always knew the quickest way to get Shepard out of his clothes.

"Well I can't speak from experience, never had a thing for Asari myself, but I'm willing to wager my life that this bond between the Na'vi is stronger than Asari," Sully spoke with such confidence that Shepard didn't doubt him anymore.

"Well, for what it's worth, I hope you two get to see each other again. I may not know the strength of your bond with Neyr.. Net.. your woman but I know what it's like being away from the one you love. No pain is worse," Shepard thought back to when he first saw Tali again on Freedom's Progress and having to endure the pain of her denying the request to join him.

"Thanks, Shepard, and it's pronounced 'Neytiri'," Sully grinned, it took Jake a while to get it himself.

"Now about this 'destruction of company property'?" the Commander leaned back against the wall reminding himself not to take sides just yet. Jake went on to tell Shepard about the sacred ground that the RDA plowed over for their own greed, and the only way to stop it was to take out the optics. Sully didn't even bother to hide the disgust in his voice whenever he talked about the RDA or Quaritch.

"Well, shit," the Commander rubbed his forehead. This was quite the dilemma. While the RDA were bastards for cutting down a sacred site to the locals, Jake was also in the wrong for damaging the company's property, "thank you for your time Jake, for now the best I can do is keep you from getting locked up. Can't promise you're out the woods yet,"

"Okay, I understand," Jake felt a little disappointed even though he knew it was right, "Do you think they will let me see Neytiri again?"

Before Shepard could answer the door opened and in walked a purple suited Quarian "John, Joker said you were in here. I wanted to know if... who's this?" the Quarian, female obviously by certain parts of the body, indicated Jake with her three-fingered hand.

"Tali, this is Jake Sully. Jake this is Tali'Zorah vas Normandy," Shepard had hoped not to be disturbed by any of his crew but that slight annoyance was smothered by his almost instinctual happiness that Tali was around.

"Pleasure," Sully reached out his hand which Tali tentatively shook. Due to the face mask Jake couldn't tell how Tali was judging him. Jake himself didn't have a problem with Quarians, but he knew how they were treated so their trust was hard to come by.

"Now what were you saying, Tali?" the Commander reminded her. Apparently it was a matter that caused her quite distress, because her hands instinctively started wringing themselves. Which was accompanied by a bit of stuttering and the Quarian tried to look anywhere but the two guy's eyes.

"Well.. it..I wanted to... it's kind of private. I don't want... I mean-"

Though this was a source of amusement to him, Shepard reached out and grabbed her hands to stop her nervous tic which caused her to look him in the eyes "It's okay, I'll come down to engineering, give me ten,"

With what Shepard just said, coupled with his and her body language, it didn't take Jake long to figure out that they were a couple, maybe even more. Sully grinned at them, mostly because they reminded him of how he was around Neytiri (at least the way Shepard was acting) and because as soon as she walked in, the Commander all but forgot Sully was still in the room. Politely Jake cleared his throat causing Tali to jump slightly.

"I'll see you later then, Shepard," Tali reluctantly strutted away, clearly eager to stay nearby Shepard. After she disappeared through the doors, the Commander indicated that Jake follow him and headed back towards the air lock.

"So...you and Tali?" Jake couldn't quite suppress his shit-eating grin. He figured this would be how Norm would tease him, if his mating with Neytiri came under better circumstances.

"Yeah and?" Shepard kept his face devoid of emotion but a slight blush was forming. He figured he should be used to this by now after the teasing he faced from Joker and Garrus. He also assumed Wrex would have a few snide remarks as well, _Damn I miss that old bastard of a Krogan_.

"How much trouble would she be in if the Migrant Fleet found out?" Jake continued, the smile widening as Shepard turned to give him a blank stare. It had been way too long since Jake let his human body relieve tension and he was glad the Commander was sporty enough to let him do it.

"About the same as I would get for mating a Na'vi," Shepard smirked at his quick thought up comeback. He figured it could be contributed to spending so much time with Joker and Garrus. _Out with the old in with the new._

"Touche, commander," Jake kept a smile on his face throughout the rest of the friendly banter. Shepard may not be able to take sides but it was still nice to have a friend in the soldier.

As the two headed back towards the comm tower they were intercepted by a tiny darker skinned woman. From her apparel Shepard figured she was a pilot.

"Jake, Quaritch is rollin' the gunships," she stopped to catch her breath for a second, "He's gonna hit Hometree," she turned and dashed off, presumably to man her station.

Horror lit up if Jake's eyes, "No!" faster than Shepard have ever seen anyone, Jake powered his chair the rest of the distance to the tower, and at the entrance they met up with Grace. The three of them charged in and made a beeline towards Parker.

"Parker, wait. Stop! These are people you're about to-"

Selfridge whirled on the unfortunate doctor anger etched across his face, "They're fly-bitten savages who live in a tree! I don't know about you but I see a lot of trees. They can move,"

"You're willing to kill kids for a bit of money?" Shepard had plenty of experience with talking down stubborn people. Unfortunately for the Commander, Parker is the king of stubborn.

"Look Selfridge, you don't want this kind of blood on your hands. Let me try to talk them out. They trust me," Sully looked near frantic but his voice was as calm and composed as ever. Selfridge thought for a moment then nodded. As the necessary staff filed out Shepard looked to Garrus, who had stopped his search as soon as commotion started, and Zaeed, who had no choice but to let Quaritch leave on his gunship.

"Go with them, I have to get back to the Normandy," He really hoped that what Tali wanted didn't take too much of his time, but he also trusted Garrus and Zaeed.

Watching the massive tree, that was home to many Na'vi, fall was one of the hardest things Garrus had to witness in his short life. Seeing all the Pandora natives fleeing the fire and even watching some getting crushed by the enormous trunk was difficult to process. From the second Garrus laid eyes on Quaritch, he knew he was bad news, but the Turian never thought he would ever be capable of this. He was still so wrapped up with what he saw he nearly missed Parker uttering to one of the sec-ops troops to shut the links down. In the back of his mind he registered the lanky scientist known as Norman Spellman punch one of the soldiers in an effort to stall them. The Turian didn't even bother protesting with the rest of the scientists. He did notice however that Mordin was uncharacteristically silent.

"Murderer! You're a murderer!" Dr. Augustine screamed at the unfazed ceo of the RDA as she was dragged out of the link bed.

As Jake was hauled from his link bed, he didn't bother to struggle, he felt dead, _No death would be a relief right now_, he thought as the image of Neytiri pushing him away and telling him to never return played over and over in his head. The soldier that got the receiving end of Norm's hay maker ordered the scientist be restrained. As they hauled Spellman to his feet, the soldier pulled out his baton and wound up a strike but was interrupted when a rough hand grabbed his wrist.

"That won't be necessary," Zaeed growled and tightened his grip as the trooper struggled to free himself "You hear me!"

"Yeah, yeah fine, whatever, let go!" his hand was shoved to the side as the veteran released the man, without looking away from Zaeed he ordered his men to take Norm away.

Garrus strode over to Mordin who was still watching the live stream of the destruction "You alright, doc?"

"Use of superior firepower on primitives. Killing innocent children. Unforgivable. Unforgivable" Mordin shut his eyes and lowered his head.

"They'll get what's coming to them if Shepard has anything to say about it," the Salarian just nodded and sat down at the terminal he had been working at since he got there. Garrus couldn't take anymore and nearly sprinted out of the room towards the comm tower.

As soon as he heard the news, Shepard stormed out of the Normandy fully armed. Thankfully Tali understood, hell she was upset herself at what the RDA had done. He burst into the lab just as the three 'traitors' were being taken away.

"Zaeed," the Commander indicated with his head for the veteran to follow the three then whirled on the ceo, "What's the ETA on Quaritch's return?"

Selfridge looked indignant "Watch your ton-"  
"ETA on Quaritch's return, now," the Commander deadpanned. Parker froze, despite being smaller than the Colonel, Shepard was by far more intimidating. It didn't help that the ceo knew about Commander Shepard's reputation and quite frankly Quaritch's accomplishments paled in comparison.

"Ronnie, how much longer until the Colonel returns," Selfridge squeaked out, unable to tear his gaze from the Commander.

"Half an hour, sir,"

Shepard nodded slowly "You and I will wait for him in your office, Parker," the Commander's voice was laced with anger and Parker was smart enough not to argue.

"Three months was the agreed upon time for Sully get the blue bastards to move. Instead of focusing on getting laid, he should have been negotiating their relocation," Quaritch wasn't too pleased with having been demanded to Parker's office to "chat" with Commander Shepard. What he would like to be doing is getting some grub and getting rid of his prisoners, then maybe drunk to celebrate an operation well done.

"That's your justification for executing women and children?" to say Shepard was upset would be a massive understatement. Parker kept quite, not wanting any attention from the two alpha males.

"I'm not happy they had to die. I know you've seen the footage by now, we tried to scare them out. They refused to leave and I don't leave jobs half done,"

"That was their home, it had been since before humans even walked the Earth. Nothing would have gotten them to leave while the tree still stood and you knew that," Never before had Shepard had to fight an urge to beat someone within an inch of their life before, well maybe Udina.

"Then they were fools for believing they could fight us off. This discussion is over, Mr. Selfridge and I have important matters to review. I trust you can see your way out," Parked jumped a bit when Quaritch brought him up.

"This discussion is far from over, but we'll continue later, right now I'm releasing the prisoners and giving all three full pardons," Shepard stormed out not bothering to listen to any protests either of them might have thrown out. Every Sec-ops soldier he passed gave him a wide berth, none of them wanted to be on receiving end of the Commander's wrath.

Just as he reached the brig his comm crackled to life "Shepard, I got some bad news," Joker sounded as upset as when Udina grounded the Normandy two years ago and Shepard got a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"Hit me, Joker," the Commander held his breath as he waited for the pilot to continue.

"The Normandy's systems have been locked out, the RDA has grounded us,"

"Dammit," Shepard thought for a second "the RDA doesn't use modern tech, you think you can get EDI to override it?"

"I have already made an unsuccessful attempt to free us, Commander," EDI replied sounding disappointed, or as disappointed as an AI can sound.

"Also there's a squad of sec-op troops hanging around our hangar bay door, I think they might try to board us soon,"

Shepard's eyes lit up in fury "If they get in I want Jack, Grunt, and Thane to 'welcome' them,"

"Roger that. We might need a replacement for Thane, though. EDI can't track him, probably meditating in the ducts again,"

The Commander rolled his eyes "Fine, have Samara step in then," he then switched his comm over to Garrus "Vakarian, where are you?"

"Cafeteria, I found something you might want to see,"

"Can it wait, you and I need to take care of something," he wasn't scared of Quaritch but it couldn't hurt to have backup, especially with his luck.

"Afraid not, Shepard, this is big," the Turian did sound slightly frantic and it took quite a lot to get under Garrus' skin.

"Better make it quick, I'm on my way," the Commander killed the comm and headed off towards the cafeteria. If Shepard hadn't been focused on getting to Garrus he might have noticed that it was a little odd that a pilot was pushing a food cart in the direction of the brig.

**I know I said this would have irregular updates, but after finishing the first chapter I got a little obsessed. Now I can say for certain that it will be a few days before chapter 3 since I still haven't decided how far to go. Teaser for next chapter: Will be featuring lots of Grunt and Zaeed.**


	3. Chapter 3

"What's your name, kid?" Zaeed asked the Normandy's shuttle pilot as he and Grunt clambered inside.

"Jedediah Messer, but just call me Jed," the pilot turned to face the two that interrupted his maintenance.

"Take us to the Commander's coordinates, now," the veteran folded his assault rifle and strapped himself into a seat across from the Krogan.

"Shouldn't we wait for the rest of the team?"

"No time, Shepard needs us now,"

-30 minutes before-

"Lay it on me, Garrus" Shepard plopped into the seat across from his Turian friend.

Said Turian glanced up from the datapad he was studying "Quaritch knew. Quaritch knew that destroying that site would provoke a reaction from the Na'vi. He intentionally put his men in harms way, just for a reason to attack,"

"What do you mean?" Shepard narrowed his eyes. The Commander already suspected the Colonel was dirty dealing this whole time.

"Grace told me there are trees out there in the jungle that the Na'vi can hook up to. _Utral Aymokriyä_, tree of voices. The Na'vi can contact their ancestors through these trees and are very important to the Omaticaya,"

"Omaticaya?" Shepard remember Jake saying that word too but got sidetracked before he could ask what it meant.

"That's the name of the clan the RDA is messing with. Quaritch ordered the dozers to plow that tree down knowing full well the clan would respond with violence, giving him an excuse to 'defend' his men," Garrus looked thoroughly disgusted. He also noted the blatant racism the Colonel wrote in his reports.

"How do you know this was his intention?" the Commander didn't have any shred of doubt that this was Qauritch's plan, but just for his own moral reason he needed proof.

Garrus tossed the datapad down in front of Shepard "It's all there. Being the top dog around here, he got careless and decided not to wipe any of his radio transmissions, and I picked up a few tricks at C-Sec on how to find hidden data. Everything he's done since he took charge here, the way he treated the Na'vi and how he's treated the scientists, it's all there. They never wanted Jake or Grace to succeed, they were just puppets, tools they used to get the intel they wanted. Then when they found out the Na'vi weren't going to move, he had them exterminated,"

The Commander skimmed the data, all the while his anger rising. It looked like relations had been drastically improving as Jake learned from the people. It looked like Grace had nearly gotten trade negotiations running not just with the Omaticaya, but a few other clans as well. He could see reports of a few avatars being relocated to a neighboring clan. They were finally making progress with the locals and in one swift movement, Quaritch ruined everything. The Colonel never hid how he felt about the Na'vi, he never wanted to work with them. To him the Na'vi were insects nesting on his proverbial crop, waiting to be exterminated. The scientists were borderline traitors to him, every accomplishment made was shit on by Quaritch. The avatars with the other clan were captured as hostages by them in response to the destruction of Omaticaya's hometree.

"Good work Garrus," Shepard dropped the pad and stood to leave "Now the _fun_ begins,"

"Where are you going? Or more importantly do you need backup?" Garrus always caught on quickly.

"I'm going to have a 'chat' with our host. I'd be delighted if you were to join me," Shepard's voiced was laced with malice and his teeth was grinding audibly as he spoke. He didn't envy the soldiers who would inevitably try to stop him.

"I left my equipment at the lab, don't start without me,"

"Be there in five, Garrus,"

The Turian nodded and stormed out. Shepard looked down at the datapad one more time, copied all the contents onto his omni-tool, then wiped the datapad clean. As he made his way to the door he checked himself, making sure his weapons were all ready to go. He activated his shields and his suit's medical interface before priming his guns with incendiary ammo.

As Shepard exited the cafeteria he nearly ran over the pilot friend of Jake's. Only she didn't look too friendly right now, he noted, as he stared down the barrel of the gun she had trained on him.

Bored, was the state of mind Zaeed seemed to be experiencing ever since landing on Pandora. Mainly because Shepard had been sending him to do guard duty. At first it had been fun knowing he was annoying the 'roided prick Colonel Quaritch, but that soon wore off quickly, especially since he was forced to abandon his duty when Quaritch left to go take down hometree. Then guarding the scientists while the Colonel destroyed that massive tree, not that they needed guarding anyway, he was just making sure the SecOps troops didn't try anything while their adrenaline was going. Now he was guarding prisoners, Zaeed almost laughed out loud at the thought but didn't move from his position of leaned against the wall, arms crossed. The only slight enjoyment he was getting out of his duty was that the RDA trooper seemed nervous about Zaeed's presence. The guard tried looking busy but every so often would glance up the veteran. He had started off on Zaeed's bad side by taunting the prisoners but was put to an end quickly by Zaeed's death-stare. None of the prisoners had spoken to him since being locked up, in fact they hardly had said three words to each other since being thrown in prison. Zaeed had seen that look many times, mostly on the face of his enemies. Defeated. They were helpless to what the RDA was going to do to them. Their only hope was Shepard getting them released. Norm looked scared that his dream was being shattered with every minute out here on Pandora. Grace looked more disappointed that the RDA would pull such a dirty trick and ruin everything her and her team had been working on. Jake seemed as empty as he was when he was hauled from his link bed. Zaeed had seen that look as well. Heartbreak. He had heard the Sully had mated with a local but had dismissed it as bullshit Quaritch was throwing around to try and worsen Jake's charges. But now Zaeed didn't doubt that accusation. He also pitied the crippled man, he knew what it was like to lose the one you love. Jake's love was still alive, but from the sound of it she didn't want anything to do with him anymore. The veteran figured, and hoped for Jake's sake, that she was blinded by grief and shock at the time and she would come to her senses and regret what she said. Though he didn't see how Jake was going to ever get reconnected with her again. Even if Shepard did get them released there was no way the RDA was going to let them use their equipment to link to his avatar again, much less give him the necessary equipment. Right now though Zaeed was trying to think of a way to get them out if things went south, which seemed to be regular occurrence when working with Shepard.

His train of thought was interrupted as a petite Hispanic woman entered pushing a food cart. She eyed the veteran as she strolled passed towards the desk where the trooper sat looking equally as bored as Zaeed.

"Personally, I don't think these tree-hugging traitors don't deserve steak," She looked genuinely annoyed as the guard eyed her up and down.

"They get steak?" the guard exclaimed in disbelief "that's bullshit, let me see that,"

In lighting fast succession, the girl pulled a gun from her holster, struck the guard on the back of the head, and snapped the sights to the veteran who stayed leaned up against the wall, arms still crossed. In slow deliberate movements Zaeed unfolded his arms and slowly clapped at the display she put on. She lowered the weapon but kept her eyes on Zaeed who stared back.

"Max!" she shouted out. A second later a chubby, fuzzy haired scientist entered. He paused for a second when he noticed Zaeed before continuing to the cell door.

The stare down was broken as the door out in the hall whooshed open. Zaeed noted the look of panic that flashed across the woman's face with amusement before sighing and pushing himself off the wall and calmly strolling out to the hall. The soldier who entered stood to the side as if to let Zaeed pass only to receive a nasty right straight to the jaw knocking him unconscious instantly. As he re-entered the room, the scientist managed to open the cell door. Jake picked up the guards pistol and nodding to Zaeed.

"Thanks, guys," Norm kissed Trudy causing Zaeed to roll his eyes.

As the six ran down the halls, Jake dropped back to Zaeed "You might want to go find the rest of your team,"

Zaeed nodded and took the next turn that lead to the command center.

Sully started to become unnerved by the eery silence that filled the hall as they made their way to the hangar. As they passed another hallway he saw a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned towards it, there was nothing. He stared down the hallway for a second before the sound of a door opening drew his attention back to the front. Shepard had exited the cafeteria and now Trudy had her gun trained on him. Jake rolled up next to her and pushed her gun down before she did something stupid. Grace, Norm, and Max held their breaths waiting for Shepard to make a move.

The Commander chuckled at the group and stood to the side to let them pass, before joining them in their run.

Grunt was starting to get agitated, and an agitated Krogan is not a potent mix. Hence why both Samara and Jack had given him ten feet of space. Shepard had ordered him to be ready for a fight, it had been nearly an hour and still no fight. To add to his agitation, EDI announced a few minutes before that the group preparing to board them dispersed. He also hadn't heard from the Commander in some time either.

"Well, I'm not going to waste my time guarding a fucking door that doesn't need to be guarded," with that Jack turned and strolled away towards the elevator.

"I, too, shall return to my meditations. If you need assistance, Grunt, don't hesitate to call," even as she finished her sentence she knew it was futile, that the Krogan would be too stubborn to call for help when he had a battle all to his own. Genetically engineered or not he was still Krogan.

Grunt watched both women leave before sitting down on the cold floor. He contemplated contacting Shepard but figured the Commander would send some sort of signal if he needed help. As if on cue, gunfire erupted outside the ship. In seconds Grunt got the ramp lowered and rushed down to see one of the Samsons take off as a lone soldier fired upon it. The Krogan was momentarily confused as to what to do until he saw a familiar figure tackle the soldier to the ground.

"Zaeed!" He roared as he saw a group of soldiers come running out of the command center to aid the one.

Zaeed and Quaritch wrestled and punched each other with all the strength either could muster. Finally they broke free and rolled to their feet and took up fighting stances. Before Zaeed could engage he was tackled from behind. Once again the veteran broke free but on the way to his feet he was surrounded by more SecOps. Zaeed was used to the odds being stacked against him, though, and the experience showed as he manged to knock out two of the soldiers before being brought down to the ground again.

Quaritch retrieved his pistol from where it was knocked loosed in his tussle with Zaeed "Restrain him, I'm gonna finish what Vido started,"

"Face me like a man, Quaritch," Zaeed spat "You goddamn coward,"

The Colonel was so focused on executing the veteran he didn't hear the heavy footsteps approaching from behind. The only warning he got that Grunt was joining the frey was an earsplitting roar before getting backhanded into the wall knocking him unconscious. The SecOps troops were momentarily stunned giving the Krogan time to get his legs churning again to deliver a charging headbutt to an unfortunate soldier, killing him instantly. Zaeed took advantage of the distraction to rip his arms out of the grasps of the soldiers restraining him, as he came up he dealt a devastating left hook, right straight combo to one and a knee to the gut, right uppercut to the jaw combo on the other. The last SecOps soldier was picked up by Grunt and slammed down on the head, breaking his neck on impact.

"Rookies," Zaeed shook his head disapprovingly "Shepard's been teaching you well, keep it up,"

"Where's the battlemaster?"

"Left on the Samson," Zaeed nodded in the direction the vessel was headed and activated his radio as the two made their way back to the Normandy "Shepard, you read me?"

"Zaeed! I read you. I saw you take down Qauritch, how are you not dead right now?" came Sheaprd's reply.

"Grunt assisted me, what's your location, I'll come to you,"

"Negative on that, we're currently on the move. Dr. Augustine took a shot in the side, we're taking her deeper into the jungle. I'll send you my coordinates once we stop,"

"Roger that," Zaeed killed the link before Shepard could follow up, knowing that it slightly annoys the Commander "Grunt, we're gonna take the shuttle to-" gunfire cut across his directions. Both Grunt and Zaeed dove to cover before taking a look at what was attacking them. More soldiers had come pouring out the command center. Zaeed counted nearly thirty with ten more gathering the wounded and dead. Grunt popped up from cover and fired a concussive shot knocked three of the troopers over and killing one.

"Ha ha ha!"

The veteran mercenary pulled out his M-76 Revenant and let loose a stream of bullets that cut down two SecOps before ducking down to avoid the return fire. Noticing that the majority of the fire was concentrated on Zaeed, Grunt popped back up and blew the head off a soldier with his Claymore, the collateral damage mortally wounding another. One of the soldiers jumped over his cover but before he could raise his weapon he was leveled by a Krogan hay maker. As the enemy fire shifted to Grunt, Zaeed tossed an incendiary grenade over his cover into a group of four soldiers, engulfing them in flames.

"Burn you bastards!" he shouted over the screams of pain "Grunt! We need to get back to the Normandy," Grunt glared daggers at the veteran, retreat was not in the Krogan's vocabulary. As if reading Grunt's mind he indicated his omni-tool "Shepard needs our help,"

Grunt groaned in frustration but nodded. The two worked in perfect unison, one giving covering fire as the other hopped from cover to cover towards the Normandy. When the enemy's fire became to much the other would take over. In less than five minutes they both had boarded the Normandy.

"EDI, raise the ramp!" Zaeed shouted as he held down the trigger to his gun and letting the massive thermal clip size run it's course. Grunt had switched to his Avenger assault rifle and stood next to Zaeed as the two mowed down the soldiers that were making suicide runs up the ramp. Just as Zaeed's gun clicked empty the ramp raised cutting off the troops advance. Without a word to each other, they ran to the shuttle.

"What's your name, kid?" Zaeed asked the Normandy's shuttle pilot as he and Grunt clambered inside.

"Jedediah Messer, but just call me Jed," the pilot turned to face the two that interrupted his maintenance.

"Take us to the Commander's coordinates, now," the veteran folded his assault rifle and strapped himself into a seat across from the Krogan.

"Shouldn't we wait for the rest of the team?"

"No time, Shepard needs us now,"

The pilot nodded and fired up the engines "How are we going to get out without a load of enemies getting in?"

"This thing has weapons, doesn't it?" Grunt growled out from his seat.

The pilot grinned wickedly "Yes it does, Zaeed would you like the honor of co-pilot?"

"Don't mind if I do, Jed" Zaeed chuckled evilly as he moved to the co-pilot's seat and booted up the weapon systems.

"EDI, open the door please," the pilot asked in an innocent voice.

"Yes, Mr. Messer,"

The soldiers outside couldn't believe their luck when the ramp started lowering again. A few even laughed out loud as they began to charge. That charge was brought to an abrupt halt as the shuttle flew out guns blazing. Those that were unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast but not killed instantly were thrown across the hanger and slammed into walls, machinery, and all sorts of solid obstacles. A few returned fire in a weak attempt at countering but none of them had the fire power to take out a shuttle.

Before anyone could regroup, the ramp to the Normandy closed back up just as Jack came running out of the elevator "Motherfucker!" she shouted in annoyance that she missed all the fun.

"Yee-haw!" the pilot shouted as they rocketed out of the hangar, bullets whizzing past.

"Can't we do another pass?" Zaeed turned in his seat to look out the window at the carnage they left behind, still wanting to do more.

"I thought you said Shepard needed you now?"

"A few extra seconds couldn't hurt, it'd be less we have to fight later,"

The pilot sighed and rolled his eyes but was grinning all the same "Alright, fine" the threw the shuttle into an 180 degree turn and sped back towards the hangar. Zaeed rained fire back down onto the unsuspecting soldiers, all the while laughing maniacally.

It was early morning by the time Zaeed and Grunt landed where Trudy had set down the mobile link site. Shepard was outside with Norm, or Norm in his Avatar form rather, when they arrived. Immediately Grunt charged out roaring, but ground to a halt when Shepard stepped in front of him.

"He's friendly, Grunt. And put your helmet on before you suffocate,"

From behind Zaeed ran out already wearing his helmet and handed Grunt his custom fitted helmet. After slipping it on and air sealing it, Grunt stared down the tall blue being. Judging by how scrawny this thing was, he figured it would be an easy fight, especially judging by the obvious fear in the eyes of it.

"Come in, Grace is in pretty bad shape. We've been keeping her stable with medi-gel but without proper medical treatment, she wont last,"

"Jake, Tsu'tey is _Olo'eyktan_ now. He won't let you anywhere near that place," Norm, now in his human form, tried to reason with Jake.

Shepard, who had been keeping silent for the most part, finally spoke up "We don't have any other options. We don't have the necessary equipment here to properly treat her. The Normandy's still locked down. I say go for it, what else can we do?"

"I've gotta try, Norm," Jake reasoned laying down in the link bead.

"I know, be careful,"

With Jake gone the trailer fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts. Trudy eventually got tired of sitting around in silence and went outside to be a lookout. It wasn't long before Grunt joined her, much to everyone's relief. The trailer was rather crowded with five people already without a Krogan adding to it.

"I can't believe Quaritch did all this," Norm said out loud mostly to himself "Why would he allow us to get this far and then yank the rug out from underneath us?"

"For press," Garrus answered "He makes it look like they were trying to cooperate with the natives. Then when the Na'vi attack he can manipulate the story to make it seem like the RDA was defending themselves,"

"That... that fucker," Norm spat "I never liked him. I always thought he was a big bully. But I'm just a puny scientist, what could I have done against him?"

"Nothing. We don't blame you Norm," Garrus assured him, staring out into the forest and watching Grunt chase a pyjak looking creature that had an extra pair of arms.

"I know, thanks," Norm shook his head in disgust "I think someone should tell him that scars aren't cool,"

"Hey!" exclaimed Shepard, Zaeed, and Garrus in indignation.


	4. Chapter 4

"How's she doing, Shepard?" Garrus inquired after removing his helmet and stretching his neck. It had been half a day since Jake entered his avatar and they were all getting worried.

"Not good, if Jake doesn't bring that help soon, we're going to lose her," Shepard massaged his temple as he contemplated using the last of his medi-gel. Garrus had already donated all of his share and it had helped keep her stable but without proper medical treatment Dr. Augustine would die.

Before Garrus could follow up their comms crackled to life "Commander, we've got some big birds headed our way!" came the voice of their shuttle pilot.

Outside Zaeed crouched low as he kept the cross hair of his sniper rifle trained on the rider of the biggest one. It took Zaeed a minute to believe what he was seeing, and he still doubted he wasn't going crazy. Garrus had just gone inside to check on the doctor when he spotted three gigantic flying creatures speeding towards them, that itself was enough to cause alarm but when he sighted down one he noticed that there was a native riding it!

"Think their friendly?" Grunt unfolded his shotgun and took up a stance next to Zaeed.

"Don't know, but knowing our luck, doubt it,"

"Good," the Krogan lightly laughed, finally he was going to see some action.

The door to the link trailer hissed open and out came Shepard and Garrus "Hold your fire," the Commander unfolded his own rifle just in case. Just in case this was Jake, the Commander had just donned the regular breather mask instead of his helmet so he would be easily recognizable.

Jake gulped as he spotted the mixed species squad form up in defensive positions, realizing that they had yet to see him in his avatar body.

Turning to Neytiri he waved to get her attention "Let me talk to them for a minute," His mate gave him a worried look but nodded. Jake guided Toruk down and landed a good distance away while Neytiri and the other warrior continued to circle overhead. As Jake stepped of his mount he raised his hands up in front of him, the universal sign of the unarmed.

"Shepard, it's me, Jake," he called to the soldier dressed in black armor with a red stripe down the right arm. Said soldier raised his hand and waved down the weapons of his comrades while holstering his own.

"I've seen the vids but damn you're big," Shepard quipped.

Jake flashed a brief smile and waved down his own companions. After the two Na'vi landed Jake made brief introductions before getting down to business.

As the men prepared Grace for transport, Neytiri stood out of the way studying the two battle-scarred _tawtute_ and the other two strange looking aliens. She especially was wary of the bulky one, though smaller in comparison to herself she had no doubt that he would be a force to be reckoned with if angered. She was about to move on to more productive things when she noticed a single _atokirina _float down from above to linger over the one called 'Shepard'.

As Shepard was busy tying together a net-like structure for Jake to carry Grace in he felt something lightly brush against the top of his head. Looking up he saw a floating jelly-fish looking thing floating above him. He reached out his hand and the thing rested for a second in the palm of his hand before floating off towards the rest of the group. As Shepard followed the thing with his eyes he noticed Neytiri staring very intently at him and froze for minute.

"Neytiri?" he said tentavily which seemed to snap her out of it, as she blinked and her eyes focused on him "What is that?"

She glanced at the woodsprite "_Atrokirina,_" was her reply which did little answer Shepard's question. But the tone of her voice and look in her eyes told him that it was something very important to her. The Na'vi woman continued to watch as the _atrokirina _hovered above each of Shepard's squad mates, Garrus being the only one to notice.

"Relation to the Hanar maybe?" he quipped.

"Hah-nar?" Neytiri questioned looking puzzled.

Shepard shot Garrus a no none-sense look before turning back the Na'vi "Nothing, don't mind him," Neytiri looked as if she wanted to press the issue but let it drop anyway.

"Can your people really save the doctor?" Zaeed asked completely oblivious to what had just transpired.

"I do not know. Mah _sa'nok _will try," Neytiri replied honestly looking sympathetic. Shepard read that Grace, Neytiri, and her deceased sister Sylwanin had grown close in their time learning at the school.

"We're grateful that you are attempting to help after what our kind did to you," Shepard reached up and put a comforting hand on her lower back, mostly because that was the only appropriate place he could reach, any lower and he would be facing an angry Jake.

"The people loved Grace. I know she is not responsible for the other _tawtute's_ actions, _Sa'nok_ knows that as well,"

"Sa'nok?" Zaeed scrunched his face in puzzlement.

"It means 'mother'," Jake answered as he walked by carrying Grace "We're ready. I'm sorry, Shepard, but I can't risk taking you guys with us,"

Shepard nodded "I understand and I don't blame them,"

"No, they must come," Neytiri said stepping forward.

"What? Tsu'tey will slaughter them!" Jake protested.

"There has been a sign from Eywa. Even Tsu'tey will not ignore that," The Na'vi woman said defiantly.

"A sign?" Jake, Garrus, Shepard, and Zaeed all said at the same time.

"_Like when I met you," _She smiled sweetly at Jake knowing he would get it and he did.

Jake's eyes grew wide and he had to fight to suppress a smile "Alright but you go first. Make sure everyone knows they're coming. You guys will have to take your shuttle but land clear on of the tree. I hope a clan of tall blue people that hate humans doesn't bother you,"

"We've fought a machine taller than these trees and won, I think we can handle a few angry Na'vi," Garrus joked.

"Be careful what you say Garrus, you might get more than what you bargained for," Jake warned, knowing first hand just how ferocious the wrath of the Omaticaya can be.

Neytiri led the way towards the Tree of souls after rejoining the group. She informed them that her mother had agreed to let the four aliens join the ceremony but them had been some 'disagreements'. As they drew near the edge of the clearing they could hear arguing. One voice sounded old and calm while the other, much louder, voice sounded younger. Most of the old voice's replies were cut off by the young voice's shouting.

Jake let out an explosive sigh and muttered "Tsu'tey," he should have known that the de facto leader of the Omaticaya clan would be less than happy with humans stepping foot near the Tree of Souls.

Both voices grew quite once the party made strode into view and down the path that split open for them. Shepard was nearly unnerved by the amount of people staring at him and his squad. He understood though, this was a time of grieving and there was people of the same kind that had killed their families intruding on their ceremony. The group got closer to the arguing pair and the one who had been shouting snarled towards the group.

"_You bring the demons that killed our family and burned our home! I will kill them!_" he drew his knife and charged right at Shepard who was front and center.

"_Tsu'tey, no!_," the old woman protested but to no avail.

The Commander didn't need to understand the languageto know that he wasn't friendly and prepared to evade the attack. Tsu'tey was just feet away, weapon raised for a killing strike, when a roar erupted and a bulky blur slammed into his midsection, causing him to fly back a couple feet and land heavily with the wind knocked from him.

"I AM KROGAN!" Grunt roared at the floored Na'vi. Whoops and shouts started up from all around them.

Shepard glanced around at the warriors drawing their bows on them "Goddammit, Grunt," he muttered. The cries of rage from the natives drowned out the protests from Neytiri and her mother. Shepard closed his eyes waiting for the inevitable when it suddenly grew completely silent '_Not how I remember death feeling the first time,' _he thought. He opened his eyes to see the weapons were lowered and everyone was staring up, following suite he saw hundreds of the _atrokirina _descending. The group of woodsprites surrounded the squad before dispersing again.

The silence continued until Neytiri's mother looked to Jake "Come,"

The natives let the group pass without interference, even Tsu-tey stood to the side glaring at Grunt.

The ceremony began, with Mo'at crying out in the native tongue to Eywa to save Grace while the clan followed suit. Shepard had lived an interesting life so far, but nothing he had encountered rivaled what he witnessed here, even death. Vines rose to encompass both Grave and her avatar as if responding to Mo'at's prayers. Grace slowly opened her eyes and rolled to her back and Mo'at raised her hands for silence.

"Jake, I'm with her, she's real," the doctor whispered staring in wonder up at the canopy of the tree of souls. Then her eyes slowly closed and her head loled to the side.

"Grace? What's happening?" Jake asked frantically.

Mo'at waved her hands over Grace's body "Her wounds were too great, there wasn't enough time. She is with Eywa now,"

"I'm sorry, Jake," Shepard chimed in reaching up to put a hand on Jake's shoulder. Jake sat in silence for a moment. He had had enough, Grace's death was the last straw. It was time to take down the RDA and let the Na'vi live in peace. Sully stood and grabbed his mate's hand, then lead her over to Tsu-tey.

"With your permission, I will speak now. You would honor me by translating," Tsu'tey nods and they both face the crowd. Jake glances around for a second then began with Tsu'tey translating.

"The sky people have sent us a message, that they can take whatever they want and no one can stop them," He paused letting that sink in before continuing with passion "But we will send them a message. You ride out as fast as the wind can carry you. You tell the other clans to come. You tell them _Toruk Makto _calls to them. You fly now, with me. My brothers, sisters. And we will show the sky people, that they cannot take whatever they want. And that this, THIS IS OUR LAND!" as the speech finished the clan let out blood-curdling war cries that echo through the forest. His blood roused by the speech and by the war cries Grunt couldn't help but adding in his own battle roar, nearly upstaging the entire clan until Toruk added in it's own roar as Jake and Neytiri mounted it. The clan took to the skies following _Toruk Makto_ as he led them to call on their allies. Shepard turned to his squad and indicated with his head towards the shuttle.

Back at the link site the squad plus Trudy sat waiting for Sully to return.

"That son of a bitch really means it doesn't he. He wants to take on the RDA," Zaeed mused with a chuckle "About goddamn time,"

"I don't know how many Na'vi he can gather, but I'd feel better with the Normandy aiding us," Garrus added as he cleaned his rifle.

Shepard nodded "Yeah, but there's no way we can go back to get her. It'd be suicide,"

"I think I can help," Trudy spoke up from the corner. She powered up one of the computers and activated a video chat and hit call on the name 'Max'. After a few seconds the pudgy scientist's face appeared.

"Trudy, better make it quick I got Allison distracting the guards,"

"Max, I know this is a lot to ask but we need the Normandy unlocked," Shepard interrupted jumping into view.

"Me? What am I going to do, I don't have clearance to do something like that," he responded glancing up to make sure the guard was still distracted. Shepard sighed in annoyance and sat back to think.

Thankfully Trudy had the answer again "Talk to Dr. Solus. Have him pout you in contact with a guy named Thane, he can help,"

Shepard's head snapped up at the mention of the drell assassin "Thane?"

"Yes, he was the one who cleared the halls for me when we escaped,"

Shepard chuckles soon turned into full out laughter "That bastard. Go talk to Mordin, but don't attempt to take the tower until the battle starts, that should give you enough of a distraction to get there unnoticed,"

"Battle?" Max said a bit too loudly as several scientists in the background whipped around to stare at Max.

"Yes, battle. We'll fill you in later, just go talk to Mordin, good luck," Trudy ordered and killed the link.

"I thought our escape was too easy," Garrus remarked.

"Are you forgetting that Grunt and I had to fight our way out?" Zaeed said looking up from his sniper.

"Yeah well, you two attract trouble, so that's no surprise," Garrus countered with a smirk.

The next day Jake brought Shepard to a meeting with the all the clan's leaders. Totaling six in all (Tsu'tey, Neytiri, Jake, Shepard and two others) the meeting began.

The first one to speak was a female with red body paint "We hear you are great _tsamsiyu _of your kind. You fly great _kunsip _'Norh-mun-dee'?"

Her accent mangled the English languish but Shepard still understood enough "Yeah, but I can't acces- erm, I mean, we can't use her,"

"Why not?" the other leader, a male, asked.

"She's been, uh, captured by the _tawtute_," he replied earning sympathetic words, which he didn't understand.

"We will not require your _kunsip_, with _Toruk Makto_ leading us, we will win," the male leader continued with confidence. The other Na'vi agreed but Jake, Neytiri, and Shepard all shared a look. They knew that it was still a long shot but they were committed. The rest of the meeting went by discussing the tactics. Shepard was prepared to be in charge of the battle plans but it turned Jake was no rookie when it came to putting together strategies. Even more surprisingly the Na'vi leaders all took in his advice without question. He figured that either Jake told them he was good or because he was a human warrior, they would respect his opinion.

After the meeting, Jake and Shepard headed back to the link shack where the two of them, Norm, and Trudy answered a frantic call from Max. Turns out Quaritch figured out the Na'vi were massing for an attack and had rigged their shuttle as a bomber. Shepard couldn't help but smile to himself as he saw Mordin walk by in the background. The RDA must have figured that he wasn't a threat, which would be a major mistake on their part. As Max killed the link they sat in silence digesting the information.

"Freakin' daisy-cutters. And here I was hoping for a plan that didn't involve martyrdom,"

"We're going up against gunships with bows and arrows," Garrus piped up from where he sat on the opposite side of the room "After Sovereign you'd think we could handle anything,"

Shepard shook his head "I don't know about the rest of you but I'm not going to quit before we get started,"

"Without the Normandy, we don't stand much of a chance," Norm added.

"Fighting for what we believe in is what matters. Would you rather run and live with the guilt or fight and die for something more important than us. If you run now and the Na'vi die you'll regret it for the rest of your lives. I for one am am going to fight. I've never made it easy for my enemies, and I've never turned down someone's call for assistance if I could help it me so I'll be damned if I start now,"

"Shepard, your squad and I are the only ones that stand a hope of surviving. This is stupid you need to rethink what you're before you doing something reckless" Trudy tried reasoning.

"There's one thing you're forgetting. That's the fact that I managed to kick a Reaper's ass along with it's synthetic army. Oh sure RDA has the better firepower and numbers on their side, but what's that got them? With something to fight for and an unmatched fighting spirit on our side, all of that doesn't amount to squat now does it? So, Trudy, instead of standing there whining about how outclassed we are, just tell me; are you gonna keep playing it safe... or do you want to get a little reckless," Shepard finished by standing and staring straight at Trudy.

"I'm sure your squad can tell me how much hell I'm about to walk into, but I'm in," Trudy laughed and shook the Commander's hand.

* * *

**Good place to end this chapter I think. First off I would like to apologize for the long delay in updates but I got a little busy with work and my social life (having a girlfriend leaves me with little time to write) also I'm beginning my planning process for a massive AU story for Mass Effect that's been bouncing in my head for a while so if you're a ME fan keep an eye out for that. Secondly I'm planning on having this wrapped up by five chapters, so the next one is going to be the big battle, unfortunately I don't know when I'll get around to that, hopefully not nearly as long as it took for this one, also sorry for the short chapter but I didn't want it to cut into the battle. Third, I had to borrow a bit for Shepard's speech, so fans of a certain web series might notice it sounds familiar. Thanks for reading, as always reviews are appreciated.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Ok so I may have lied at the end of the last chapter. I said I wanted this wrapped up by 5 chapters. I meant 6 lol. So don't worry there is one more.**

**/**

**/**

The morning of the battle Shepard and his crew were doing last minute checks on their equipment. Some, like Shepard, couldn't help but feel that they were in over their head. He was trying to be positive but despite what he told Trudy, they were outclassed. Then there were some, mainly Grunt, that only cared that there was a big battle that they were going to be apart of. Shepard was so lost in thought that he didn't notice a young Na'vi woman approaching. He was brought back to reality by a gently touch on his shoulder. The Commander had to arch his back to look up the native woman, and she was kneeling.

"I'm sorry, I was in another world," he smiled apologetically to the pretty Na'vi.

"No need to be sorry. Important to be focused," She reassured him in struggling English.

Instinctively he held out his had "Commander Shepard,"

The woman stared at his hand in confusion before answering "I know who you are. You are great _tawtute_ warrior. Jhakesully talks much of you,"

Shepard just smiled, he was used to compliments so he was long past blushing.

"Forgive me, I know your name, but you know not mine. My name is Ninat,"

"Pleasure to meet you, Ninat," Shepard resisted the urge to raise his hand for a shake.

"I'm here to pray for you. Our warriors have received blessings from the singers of the clans and prayers. Jakesully tells me there was no one to pray for you. If you would like I will do so for you,"

"I'd be honored, Ninat,"

"Also I brought some paint, all our warriors have been painted for battle," Shepard merely nodded.

The Commander closed his eyes as the woman in front of him began praying for in her native tongue. He took a deep breath as he felt her fingers brush along the clasps of his exo-pack. She slipped the mask off and skillfully got to work painting his face. She chose a red stripe to run down the middle of his face with black border lining, and finally she put a purple circle in the middle of his forehead. After she had finished, Shepard carefully re-attached his mask trying not to smudge the fresh paint. He then turned towards the window of the shack to check out his reflections. His face lit up in surprise as he noticed the color scheme she chose.

"Did Jake tell you to use these colors?"

"No he did not. Eywa visited my dreams told me these would suite you best," she replied with a smile then stood "Excuse me Commandershepard, I must get back to my people,"  
"Thank you, Ninat, it was nice meeting you," he replied as she bowed and did a weird gesture with her hand. Shepard went to seek out the rest of his squad to get a few last words in before coordinating with Jake as to where his squad would be placed.

"Hey, Commander, where's the carnival," Jed laughed gesturing to his face.

"If the natives think this will help me in battle, who am I to argue?" he replied with a smile to the young pilot. Over time working with the pilot of his shuttle, the Commander came to realize the pilot wasn't a bad kid, like Jacob he was just a bit misguided. He certainly wasn't a xenophobe like some on the Normandy, and even had become good friends with Garrus and for a while had a crush on Samara. To add onto that he was one of the few human crew members that treated Tali with respect the first time he met her.

"Don't blame you, sir, these guys know their stuff. Check out the new paint job on my shuttle," Jed indicated with his thumb over his shoulder to where the aircraft was parked. The usually black and white shuttle now had bright yellow and blue stripes running the length of the craft "It was free too, haha,"

Shepard continued his walk, encountering Zaeed next. The reaction from the veteran mercenary identical to Jed's.

"How old are you, Shepard?"

Shepard merely smiled as he noticed another young Na'vi woman approaching Zaeed from behind "Zaeed when you accepted my offer to join my crew you agreed to follow my orders to the tee, fight?"

"Your boss paid me, so yeah," Zaeed replied with a shrug.

Shepard couldn't remember being so smug in his life "Then I order you to accept this nice lady's offer without complaint, and you will thank her for it,"

Zaeed whirled around to see the woman carrying paint then turned back to Shepard "I was paid to fight Collectors, not get my face painted like a goddamn kid," he hissed out through clenched teeth.

"Orders are orders, Mr. Massani," Shepard laughed and patted his back before striding on to find Garrus, biting his lip as he overheard the native woman begin her request.

Shepard found his Turian friend doing last minute tweaks to his sniper rifle, and as he approaching Garrus smiled up at his long time companion "Good thing about my face paint is these Na'vi think I've already had a blessing, and they pass right over me. I knew you would handle it well, but I assume Zaeed will be less than pleased, and don't even get me started on Grunt,"

Shepard chuckled at that "I don't think any of the natives are brave enough to go near Grunt, at least the ones that aren't warriors. Zaeed will be very grateful of their offer, whether he wants to be or not,"

"Must be nice being in charge," suddenly the Turian's demeanor dropped "How much of chance do you think we stand today, and don't give me that crap you used on Trudy, I know better,"

"Let me ask you this, Garus. As a team have you and I ever been defeated?"

"No, but we have a much bigger team to look out for,"

"I have a feeling they can handle themselves. We just need to focus on our objective. We can't let them get a clear line to the tree of souls,"

"You realize we are outnumber and outgunned by a ratio I can't even calculate right now?" Garrus spread his arms wide in exasperation.

"Did you calculate how outgunned and outclassed we were by Sovereign and the Geth? How did that work out for them? And that was just with seven of us,"

"As always, you have a good point. I'm not about to back out, don't worry. Just trying to figure how we win in a battle like this,"

"Well if Than succeeds in freeing the Normandy, we'll be set but I'm ready for a tough fight,"

"For sure, Shepard," Suddenly Garrus started giggling "Looking good, Zaeed,"

Shepard turned to see a less than happy Zaeed stomping his way towards them. His face had been painted in horizontal yellow and white stripes that matched his armor.

The mercenary veteran pulled out an incendiary grenade "Want matching mandibles, bird-boy?"

Garrus chuckled again before standing up to stare-down the mercenary "If you think you can do it, old man,"

The Commander sighed and put himself in the middle "Save it for the bad guys,"

"Your hotshot mouth is going get you into trouble you can handle one these days, kid," Zaed said to Garrus before storming off.

Shepard watched him go before turning to Garrus "Do you have to antagonize with him? Is now the time?

"I've fought with Zaeed for a few weeks now. If there's anything I've learned is that he fights better angry. So I guess you can say is that I'm boosting our chances," the Turian replied with a smirk.

"Tone it down a bit, Garrus. I'd rather avoid friendly fire if I can," Shepard said in a no non-sense tone of voice.

"Y-yes Commander, sorry."

/

/

/

Jake flew in between two floating mountains, the walls coated with ikran mounted warriors. This was it, in mere moments the fight for Pandora would begin. _No, the fight for my home_ Jake mentally corrected himself. In his brief time here he had come to call this wonderful planet/moon his home. No longer did he desire to be human, he'd rather spend the rest of his days as one of the people here with Neytiri. That's what he was fighting for here today, a future to spend with Neytiri and hopefully one day, his children. Nervous was a massive understatement when trying to describe how he felt. Not only was he fighting for his home, and for the people he'd come to care for, his own mate was going to be fighting along side him. If he could have had it his way she would be sitting back at the tree of souls with her mother. He didn't suggest it to her, though, might as well avoid that fight he would never win. At the same time Sully felt an immense sense of pride knowing he had friends like Norm and Trudy fighting for these natives that they hardly knew. Not to mention Shepard and his crew. After receiving the RDA's battle plans from his inside source, EDI, he split his defense into two. Air and ground. He hoped that Trudy and the shuttle from the Normandy would provide enough air support to even the odds. On the ground there was Norm on horseback, which Jake laughed his ass off when he first caught sight of the scientist try to mount up. There was the sniper team of Garrus and Zaeed stationed half a click away from the sec-ops planned LZ. Shepard and Grunt were placed north of the LZ in a flanking maneuver. Sully received word that the RDA had landed their ground troops already and were advancing, so now everyone was just waiting on Toruk Makto to start the party. And start the party he did. He and Toruk drew first blood by slamming into an unsuspecting scorpion gunship, latching onto the tail, and driving it into the side of a floating mountain. Around him arrows shattered cockpit glass and killed pilots. Then the RDA returned fired, in a minute the Na'vi took a massive drop in numbers.

/

/

On the ground the advancing sec-ops troops halted as they picked up the advancing Na'vi on their faltering radar.

"This is it, old man. 5,000 credits says I get a higher kill count," Garrus challenged his fellow sniper who was stationed in a tree two hundred yards away.

"You're on, kid,"

The air filled with the sound of hundreds of hooves crashing into the soil, mixed with the whoops of the warriors mounted on them.

"Light'em up!" Wainfleet shouted, and the sec-ops opened fire, taking out the majority of the front lines in the first volley.

Private Gibson was laughing as he pinned his trigger with the sights set on a fallen warrior struggling to retreat "You can't run motherfu-" he wasn't able to finish his sentence as a sniper round took him right between the eyes.

"Scoped and dropped!" exclaimed Garrus as he lined up another shot and eliminating another trigger happy soldier "Too easy!" As he popped another thermal clip into his M-92 Mantis bullets riddled his cover "Zaeed, mind babysitting while I find another position?"

"Go, I gotcha," the veteran mercenary replied while firing his M-97 Viper in quick succession, taking out two targets who were troubling the Turian. With his armor piercing ammo he managed to take out an AMP suit by taking down the driver before being forced to relocate.

Luckily for the two sharpshooters, the majority of the sec-ops were concentrated on the mass of Na'vi still charging. Only a few noticed that they were being picked off, but even they couldn't do much about it before being dropped themselves. So far the closest call had been while Zaeed was relocating he ran smack dab into a lone trooper. Unluckily for the sec-ops he ran into Zaeed, who merely smashed his rifle into the exo-pack the trooper was wearing, smashing the glass out. Not bothering to finish the soldier off himself, Zaeed trotted off to his next position letting the toxic air of Pandora take care of his assailant. He made a mental not to still count that as his kill.

"Jackpot," Garrus muttered as he spotted a sec-ops troop carrying a flame thrower huddled near three other soldiers. One shot to the fuel tank and he was up four more kills and it was a rather pleasing explosion too "What's your count, Massani?"

"None of your damn business, Vakarian," came the heated response.

"Keeping your cards close to your chest, huh? I like it," Garrus sighted down another soldier but before he could pull the trigger, the trooper's head exploded. If the Turian didn't know better he would have thought Zaeed did that on purpose.

Over the sounds of gunfire and screams an ear-splitting roar sounded out that could only mean one thing, Grunt had joined the fray. The tank born Krogan charged into the middle of a three man squad, bowling over one, blowing another in half with his shotgun, and headbutting the last one. He set his sights on an AMP suit next. There was just enough distance to get an effective charge going and he slammed into the machine right in the middle where the leg joints meet the mass of the body. The momentum was enough to cause the suit to topple and before the driver could recover, Grunt clambered up on top, put his Claymore point-blank against the glass, and with a pull of the trigger, eviscerated the unfortunate driver. While Grunt was blood-thirsty, he wasn't stupid and took advantage of the enemy's confusion to take cover. A short distance away Shepard was popping up and eliminating targets with short bursts from his M-15 Vindicator assault rifle. He moved from cover to cover, with help from the sniper team, until he joined Grunt.

"Zaeed's taking too much fire from that squad there, concussive shot right in the middle," he ordered and Grunt happily obeyed.

"Yeah, right on your ass!" he shouted out as the five man squad were forcefully scattered from the shot. Follow up shots from Shepard and the marksmen ensured that that particular squad wouldn't trouble them anymore.

Their comms crackled to life "Jake, we're falling back, we're getting hammered!"

"Roger, get out of their," came the reply.

"Dammit, not yet!" Shepard growled to himself. It seemed like the battle had just begun, it couldn't be over already.

/

/

Back at Hell's Gate the scientists were on the move. With the help of Mordin they were in the process of retaking the lab and access to their Avatars. As the reached the doors to the lab a soldier stepped from around the corner and raised his gun.

"Stop right there!"

Without batting an eye Mordin raised his M-6 Carnifex and executed the trooper. He then turned to the stunned scientists "Come. No time to waste,"

The gunshot, however, caught the attention of another nearby guard and he rounded the corner assault rifle raised, but before he could speak a kick from behind took out his right knee and a pair of hands skillfully snapped his neck. The figure walked up to Max "Dr. Patel, follow me please," the drell commanded.

"Thane?" Max questioned, even though he already knew the answer.

"Yes, come, we're taking the command center. Tell your avatar drivers to meet us there, and they better bring weapons.

/

/

Jed swore as he saw Trudy's samson plummet. The two had been working together well. While the samson had an edge in firepower, the shuttle was faster and more agile.

"This is Rogue one, I'm going in. Sorry Jake," came the voice of the pilot over the radio.

Jed saw the Dragon assault ship's missile pods aiming for the crippled samson, and jumped into action. He sped the shuttle directly towards the assault ship and let loose a volley onto it. As the ship turned to fire upon him he pulled up, knowing there was no way the lumbering assault ship could keep up. He turned the craft to see if Trudy was able to maneuver her samson to safety in time to see her crash into the side of the mountain and plummet to the forest below.

/

/

Jake took a look around at the empty skies. Here and there he saw ikran makto putting up a fight but his numbers were drastically depleting. His ground forces were in full retreat. Well not full, he doubted Shepard and his team were falling back. He tried calling Norm, Tsu'tey, and Trudy on his comms to no avail. He could hardly read Shepard's transmission. He was alone, and the Valkyrie was still chugging along to it's target with it's devastating payload.

/

/

"Samson down, I repeat, samson down," Jed called into the radio "Request permission for immediate extraction," he pleaded as he circled the crashed aircraft. The Dragon had moved on to escorting the Valkyrie, and now he was worried about his fellow pilot. There was no reply and after three more tries he dove down to retrieve her. He landed as near as he could get. He dashed to the crashed samson and pried open the damaged door. The pilot was a bloody mess and unconscious but he could feel a faint pulse.

"Hold on, I'm gonna get you out of here," he reassured her, even though she couldn't hear him. Trudy groaned as she was lifted from her seat and carried bridal style back to the shuttle. As he strapped her into a seat bullets started to riddle the shuttle and he jumped back into the pilot's seat to get air born again "Hold on Trudy, I'm taking you to some help,"

/

/

The Avatars stormed the command tower and in just a few seconds took over. What little opposition there was got put down quickly by Thane. Max charged to a nearby console and got to work freeing the Normandy. After a few minutes he cried out in triumph as the lock lifted and metallic clamp retracted. To Thane it was a beautiful sight, seeing the engines power up.

"This is the Normandy prepping for take off. Shepard, if you can hear this, help is on the way,"

/

/

"Don't attack! Do you read me Neytiri!" Jake cried frantically. This felt like a nightmare. His mate had fallen practically into enemy hands and knowing her she was about to fight to the death. A few seconds of painful silence later she replied.

"Eywa has heard you. Eywa has heard you!"

Before he could ask her what the hell she meant, ikran cries split the air as hundreds of them fell upon the scorpions. With renewed confidence he took Toruk into a dive towards the biggest threat in the sky. As he passed over the Valkyrie he jumped off and dashed along the roof taking out a gun nest. Pulling out a grenade he pulled the pin and tossed it into the port side engine. Before it detonated he dashed to the edge and jumped back onto Toruk. He heard the explosion and watched as the ship veered hard to the left before focusing on the next threat and a man who had made this very personal. He nearly performed the attack perfect but before he could toss the grenade the ship veered and he lost his balance. He managed to catch himself on a missile and worked to detach it when he took fire from the bastard who started all of this. With a grunt he tossed the missile up and into the blades, the explosion taking out a vital engine. He was able to land safely and turned to watch the ship tumble with satisfaction. That satisfaction turned to horror as he notice a figure drop out in an AMP suit. He also realized how close they were to the link shack. Before he took off another discovery nearly brought him to his knees. The Valkyrie was still air born! It was struggling to maintain flight but it was still making headway.

"I got this one!" a new yet familiar voice cried out into his radio. The sound of massive engines filled the air and out of the clouds a massive pearl colored ship, bigger than the Valkyrie, dropped.

"The Normandy," Jake muttered in awe.

A single shot from the torpedoes of the Normandy took out the Valkyrie in a spectacular explosion. It was definitely overkill but Jake figured it was no less than those bastards deserved. With that taken care of he could focus on Quaritch, because who else could it be in the AMP? Who else was that stubborn?

/

/

Grunt was chasing two sec-ops humans as they retreated. After the arrival of reinforcements in the shape of Pandora's fauna, Shepard's squad had split. Just as the Krogan was catching up two viperwolfs charged past him and tackled both men and proceeded to tear them apart.

"Damn mutts, save some for me!" he roared in frustration. As Grunt took off in search for more targets a yowl of pain rent the air. Judging by the volume this creature was massive, and Grunt was nearly salivating as he headed off in the direction of the noise.

/

/

Neytiri struggled against the dead weight of the _palulukan_ she had been riding. She had been so close to killing this _tawtute _in his metal suit. The man snarled in satisfaction as he pulled the knife from the dead predators body and set his eyes on her. The Colonel recognized her, this was the woman that Jake had slept with. If he killed her the Na'vi's great leader would fall. He raised the weapon for the kill, and Neytiri closed her eyes. Suddenly there was a loud metallic crunch and when she opened her eyes she saw the metal _tawtute _sprawled out with that strange alien, who had floored Tsu'tey, standing over him.

"I am KROGAN!" the thing cried and it sent chills down the Na'vi woman's spine. She had been right not to anger this one. Quaritch did an undignified scramble back to his feet a brought the massive knife into a defensive position.

"Come on, come and get me!" he challenged the Krogan. Grunt in response charged towards him but stopped to avoid a downward swipe from the blade, brought up his Claymore and fired. The Colonel was able to just get the cockpit out of the line of fire and the shot grazed the left arm. Quaritch swung the knife horizontally catching Grunts weapon and knocking it from his grasp. Before Quaritch could bring the blade back around for another attack Grunt charged into him. This time the Colonel was ready for it and was able to brace himself against the brunt of the attack. They met with a sickening crunch and immediately were forced into a stalemate. As arrogant as Quaritch could be, he hadn't attained the rank of Colonel for no reason, he was smart in battle, smarter than a month old Krogan to say the least. Suddenly Qauritch sidestepped and Grunt fell flat on his face and before he could recover, got his head driven into the ground by a stomp from the AMP suit, knocking the Krogan unconscious. Before he could turn back to the Na'vi woman, Jake jumped down into view.

"It's over Quaritch,"

Quaritch raised the knife and snarled "Nothings over while I'm still breathing,"

Jake nodded "I hoped you'd say that," and charged

/

/

Wainfleet struggled to free himself from the AMP wreckage. How he had managed to avoid being crushed he didn't know but wasn't about to argue with fate. As he struggled to his feet a rugged hand clamped down on his left shoulder, spun him around, and delivered and right straight, knocking the soldier back to the ground. As Lyle's vision cleared he saw Zaeed standing over him cracking his knuckles and rolling his neck.

"I told you blindly following orders would get you killed. Stand up and face me like a man," the veteran merc stood back to allow him to his feet. Wainfleet took up a weak fighting stance before taking a step forward and throwing a half-assed left hook, which Zaeed easily avoided. After trying a right uppercut, which missed, he got countered with a left jab, right hook to the body combo from Zaeed.

"Is this all you got, boy?" the merc taunted as Lyle struggled to regain his breath. Zaeed stepped forward and hit him with another combo causing Wainfleet to drop. Lyle had enough, after getting back to his he turned and took off in the opposite direction.

Zaeed merely sighed and unfolded his sniper rifle "Why do they always run?"

The merc took a knee and took aim. He took a few seconds to line up the shot and fired.

/

/

Neytiri watched in horror as the _tawtute _picked up her mate by the queue and bring his knife forward to Jake's throat. She was unable to help him as the dead _palulukan_ still pinned her down. She heard a low grumble and watched as the bulky alien who had rescued her earlier slowly sat up, surveyed the situation, and clamber over to her. Grunt grabbed a hold of the dead animal and with a great heave pulled the body off the Na'vi woman, but unfortunately the body collapse back onto him. Now free, Neytiri retrieved her fallen bow, notched an arrow, and fired. The shot hit it's mark, taking Quaritch in the chest. Neytiri notched another arrow and fired again, putting it next the former for good measure. With a dying gurgle the Colonel collapsed as Neytiri rushed to her mates side.

"Jake, mah Jake," she shook him but he didn't move. The sound of alarms caught her attention and she turned to see the strange metal structure that Jake had been trying to protect. She rushed towards an opening, or what she thought was an opening, but bounced of a clear covering. She peered inside to see a _tawtute_ male spread out on the floor. Her heart raced as she dashed to the hole made by the _tawtute_ machine and jumped inside. She scooped up the human and studied him for a second. Despite being human, the features were identical, this was her mates other body. And he wasn't breathing. She shook him while crying his name and praying that he open eyes. In a near panicked state now she looked about for something to aid him and noticed a mask dangling near where he had fallen. It clicked in her mind that all the other _tawtute _wore them and her usually nimble and skilled fingers shook as as she struggled to get it on Jake's face. There was a loud hissing and her mate's body jolted as he took short ragged breathes. His eyes shot open and he reached up to seal the mask completely and then took two huge breathes of air as he stared into his lover's eyes. Slowly he reached up to cup her face. She cover his hand with her own as her eyes started to water.

"I see you," Jake whispered.

Neytiri couldn't help but grin in relief and replied "I see you,"

They rested in comfortable silence, each enjoying the presence of the other. The moment was ruined when a loud thunk sounded behind them. Neytiri instinctively clutched Jake tight to her chest as she whirled around hissing at the intruder. Her challenge died in her throat as she realized it was the alien who had assisted her.

"Grunt!" Jake cried out happily "I owe you for protecting Neytiri here,"

"Hmph," was the Krogan's reply as he turned and left.

"Follow him, please. I'd rather not us be completely defenseless," Jake ordered and she silently obeyed.

As they strode through the forest they could hear cries of victory echoing through the trees. The battle for Pandora had been won.

/

/

/

**Alrighty then. As I said at the beginning there is going to be one more chapter to wrap this up. Sorry for mistakes in spelling and what not but most of these chapters are written out at like 2 or 3 in the morning lol. I've been thinking about doing a sequel involving the ME3 storyline, but that won't be until I've gotten my AU Mass Effect story going. Reviews encourage me to write, so if you want this and my other stuff continued faster please review and tell me what you liked or didn't like. Peace**


	6. Chapter 6

Jed felt helpless as he watched the Na'vi healers going to work on Trudy's body. She had yet to regain consciousness and lost a lot of blood in his flight to the tree of souls. Not to mention his radio got shot to hell in a dogfight so he couldn't message the Normandy, which had passed by a few times since it's dramatic appearance. He hated being here without someone telling him what to do, also being the only human was disconcerting. Mo'at broke off from the group and gave him a somber look "We are doing what we can, but she is getting weak,"

Jed rubbed both hands across his face a sighed "Fuck, I don't know what to do," he declared helplessly. The Na'vi elder simply patted his shoulder in sympathy before returning to her duties.

/

/

Shepard strode through the forest with his weapon at the ready. Th sounds of gunfire was slowly depleting but that wasn't a reason to let his guard down. Luckily he wasn't alone. As he was chasing down a pair of RDA soldiers, Norm had appeared and fell in. Unluckily Norm had to be the most inexperienced individual he had ever met. Despite that he was grateful for a second pair of eyes.

"You sure this is the way to the tree?" Norm asked for the hundredth time.

Under his helmet Shepard rolled his eyes "No. but I know I heard Grunt's battle cries coming from this direction,"

Before Norm could respond the Commander dropped to his knee and sighted down his rifle. Norm followed suite albeit a little sloppy. There was something making its way towards the two, and as Shepard rested his finger on the trigger, it stepped into view.

"Grunt!" Shepard cried out. The Krogan barely gave him a second glance as he turned and indicated with his head back behind him. A few seconds later Neytiri stepped out holding Jake.

"Jake, are you alright? What happened?" Norm rushed forward to see if he was injured.

"I'm fine, and Quaritch happened. He's dead no though, and don't worry my body is fine as well,"

"Where is it?" Shepard asked

"Grunt pulled it into the mobile link up site for the time being, it should be safe,"

"Have you seen any of the others?"

Jake shook his head "No, sorry,"

Shepard thought for a second "We should head back to the tree of souls,"

/

/

"So that's your excuse?" Zaeed asked in disbelief. He had found Garrus trudging around aimlessly and decided to settle the bet, to which he discovered that Garrus had "lost count".

"You saw how hectic things were getting, how could anybody keep tra-"

"37," Zaeed interruped "that's how many I got,"

"Oh, well I was way past that when I lost track," Garrus answered with a smirk "But I'm willing to call the bet off,"

"You're so full of shit Vakarian,"

"That's the pot calling the kettle black there, Massani," Shepard declared as he stepped out into the open "Nevertheless I agree,"

Garrus laughed and clapped the commander on the back "Shepard! Nice to see you're still in one piece. Grunt as well,"

"What about us?" Jake asked from his perch in Neytiri's arms.

"Neytiri is looking as beautiful as ever," Garrus replied causing Neytiri's spots to light up "Jake, you look like hell," that earned a middle finger.

"Come, not too far now," Neytiri interrupted taking the lead.

/

/

Jed sat with his head in his hands trying not to cry, he failed. A Na'vi healer had just informed him that Trudy had passed away due to blood loss. It wasn't fair, he made the daring rescue and made it back to the tree of souls. The damsel in distress isn't supposed to die on the hero.

At the sound of his name being called his head shot up and his face lit up as he spotted Shepard and the crew strolling into camp.

"Shepard, thank god you made it," he said somberly.

Shepard noticed the somber tone and squinted his eyes "Is everything okay, Jed?"

"Trudy..Tru..she didn't make it,"

"NO!" Norm sprinted by them "That can't be true!"

Garrus lowered his head "Damn, she was a tough one too,"

Jake stayed silent and fought the emotions welling up inside him. Neytiri tried to stay calm but as she watched dead bodies and the injured being hauled in from the forest her eyes began to water and her breathing became ragged. Looking up at mate Jake's heart dropped as he realized his losses were nothing compared to what she was enduring. He reached up and slung both his arms around Neytiri's neck in a comforting hug. Neytiri's legs grew weak and she dropped to her knees hugging Jake more tightly to her.

Zaeed watched as Norm was gently hauled away from Trudy's body by two Na'vi healers and his heart went out to the poor boy. It was obvious war was new to these normally peaceful people, and a part of him hated that humanity had tainted their way of life.

The sound of another shuttle approaching caught Shepard's attention and he stared quizzically at the craft as it landed. His questions were answered as the door opened and Tali came dashing out at full speed "John! You're safe!" she ran full speed into the Commander's outstretched arms "Keelah I was so worried!"

"I've got a few scrapes and burns but what else is new?" Shepard replied wincing slightly as Tali's arms squeezed on one of said burns.

"I'm alright too by the way," Garrus piped up from the side.

Without letting go of Shepard, Tali turned her head to look at the Turian "Yes, I see that Garrus,"

The Quarian finally let go of her boyfriend and took in her surroundings and spotted the human/Na'vi couple wiping their eyes "Jake, are you two alright?" she asked, her voice filled with sympathy.

"Yeah, we're fine. All this is just a lot for her to take in at once,"

The Quarian reached out and grabbed the Na'vi princess' hand "I know how you feel, is there anything you need?"

"No, I am unhurt, but my people require assistance," Neytiri answered, her heart warmed by the strange alien's sympathy.

Shepard stepped forward and grabbed everyone's attention "Tali and Garrus go to the critically wounded and offer your medi-gel. Grunt, Zaeed, and Jed, take one of the shuttles and help transport the injured back here. Jake, Neytiri, we're going to take the other shuttle back to the mobile link site. Let's get Jake's body back here and you to a link module, these people need a leader and that's you,"

"Me, a leader? I may be _Toruk Makto _but I don't have what it takes to clan leader," Jake said frantically.

"The _Omaticaya _need a leader, at least until Tsu'teyturns up,"

Garrus sighed "I found him in the woods, he didn't make it" Neytiri gasped and fell silent again fighting tears.

"Jake, you're these people's only hope right now. You just led them to victory, they look up to you," Shepard pleaded "And you won't be alone, Neytiri and Mo'at will be there to help,"

Jake let out an explosive sigh "Fine, let's get moving before something finds my body and easy meal,"

/

/

Two days had passed since the war ended and Shepard decided they needed to move on with their own mission. They stayed long enough to help escort the RDA off world and watched Jake permanently take over his Na've body (he still couldn't believe it).

The Commander and Jake stood out on the runway at Hell's gate in front of the Normandy's ramp. Shepard had said his goodbyes to the Na'vi and scientist and was waiting for the Normandy to finish fueling up.

"Without your help, Shepard, none of us here would still be alive. So thanks for the help and if there's anything you need, don't hesitate to ask," Jake proclaimed as he held out his hand.

Shepard reached up and shook it, chuckling as his hand was dwarfed by the _Omaticaya_ leader's "I'd like to stay and help rebuild but our mission is too critical to wait around too long. In fact I kind of need help with the collectors but I don't expect you or your people to be able to help,"

Jake smirked and pulled a vial out of his satchel "Max told me to give this. It's the toxin the Na'vi use on their arrows. You could have Mordin turn it into some sort of poison ammo but I don't know how effective it will be against collectors,"

Shepard held the vial up to inspect the clear liquid "Every little bit helps, thank you Sully. The alliance is going to do it's best to keep anyone from trying to land here and they're going to keep your human friends supplied with food and the like,"

"Aren't you Cerberus, why'd they agree to something like that?"

"Haha, consider it a gift and apology from the first human councilor. I guess this is goodbye, I won't be coming back here," Shepard said somberly.

"If you ever change your mind, you are most welcome back," Jake saluted then turned and strode back towards his ikran and waiting mate.

Shepard turned and walked up the ramp towards Tali who was waiting on him

Neytiri watched as the Normandy slowly rose into the air, turned, and took off into the clouds faster than anything she'd ever seen "_Will we ever see him again?_"

"He said that he won't be returning, but I have a feeling we'll seem him again one way or another," Jake replied with a smile.

"_If he ever comes back I know Eywa would accept him,_" She said confidently.

Jake's smile grew bigger as he pulled his mate into him and kissed her.

**A/N: Sorry for the long ass wait but my old computer died on me and I lost everything including the Mass Effect Alternate Universe I hinted at, and it killed all my motivation to write. Sorry if this last chapter seemed a little lack luster but my heart wasn't as into it and I didn't want to leave you guys hanging. I learned my lesson and now all my stories will be stored on a flash drive.**


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